


Jealousy is not Punk Rock

by orphan_account



Category: AFI
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Humor, M/M, horse camp javeys!, unexpected sweetness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 22:36:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3226013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Horse Camp Universe] Davey is jealous of Jade's horse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jealousy is not Punk Rock

**Author's Note:**

> Jade finally gets some character development and stops being 100% arrogant asshole all the time.

It was the day after a thunder storm, the kind where everything is newly washed-off and shining and ultra-bright. A clean day, when green looks more green than it should, and the sun is actually kinda beautiful, even to Davey who doesn’t let himself like the sun. 

Davey had his head hanging out Jade’s window like a dog, letting the wind tear through his hair and spread it across his face. The air felt cold on the shaved parts of his head, and gooseflesh made a subtle relief map of his bony arms, from which he’d shucked his sweat shirt in favor of the clarity of spring. They were driving to the stables Jade kept Willa at, since it had been raining all week and he hadn’t been able to ride as much as usual. Apparently some big hunt seat show was coming up, and he’d been getting anxious about being ready. So naturally, he was off to the barn the second it quit pouring. Davey tagged along, because he thought Jade looked hot when he rode, and didn’t like to be away from him for very long.

“I sincerely hope the arena’s not all puddles. Altadena stables are too cheap for an indoor, but I get _fucked_ when the weather’s bad...” Jade complained, right hand idly resting on Davey’s leg and rubbing the inseam of his jeans. Davey nudged his hand off and knit his brows together, knowing better than to let Jade touch him so high up on his thigh when he wasn’t going to be getting any within the next hour or so. When Jade got hyper-focused on riding, it consumed him, no matter how badly Davey wanted his full attention. It was annoying, but also charming, so Davey just sat there, squirming with ambivalence. 

“You gotta admit, it’s really pretty outside after it rains, though,” Davey offered, shrugging. 

Jade rolled his eyes, hand re-adhering itself to Davey’s leg. “Pretty outside?! Hm, I think I’m dating a queer. It doesn’t matter how pretty anything is if I don’t place in hunt seat,” he grumbled letting his eyes drift from the road a second so he could smile at Davey, and probably wink, though his sunglasses were too dark to tell. 

Davey hadn’t minded the rain. After all, when the rain was messing up Jade’s riding schedule, all those hours spent training magically transformed into hours spent hanging out and fucking a lot. Though Jade _did_ spend half the time lamenting over how much he missed his horse, which was kind of insulting to Davey, but whatever. 

“Ugh, here we go...” Jade sighed, pulling into the dusty parking lot. Davey sat in the passenger side quietly and watched Jade while he yanked on his half chaps and zipped them up. His calves looked really sexy, especially because he didn’t think so. Jade was a cocky bastard, but occasionally he forgot it, especially when he was stressed about a show or being hard on himself about some pointless and minute riding detail Davey didn’t even notice. This self-critical, obsessive Jade was incredibly attractive, largely because he was Davey’s, and Davey’s alone. Davey was fairly certain no one else saw this rare, beautiful side of Jade, the one that was vulnerable and bled. 

This was why he liked watching Jade ride so much. Because Jade was stripped down when he did it, raw and entirely consumed with the task at hand. 

The only issue with the whole thing was that the cause was _not_ Davey. It was something external, something as foreign and removed from them and their relationship as a horse.

Davey got a little jealous sometimes, but he tried not to let it bother them. 

Jade slammed the door and gestured for Davey to follow him, and they headed down the dirt path to the barn Willa’s stall was in, avoiding the pockmarks of mud that lined the walkway. “I think it’ll be okay...we can just avoid that one corner,” Jade said quietly to himself as he surveyed the arena hopefully. Then he turned to Davey. “You can hang out wherever...did you bring homework or something?” 

Davey shrugged, kicking at some gravel and sidestepping towards the tack room. “I was just gonna watch you. If that’s okay.” 

Jade stared at him. “I’m probably just going to do flatwork. It’ll be really boring.” He narrowed his eye, the one that Davey could actually see since it wasn’t covered by his flat ironed blonde hair. 

“I don’t care,” Davey said, trying to sound nonchalant. 

“Huh, you really are in love with me, loser,” Jade grinned, strolling by Davey and pushing him as he went. Davey stumbled and almost fell in a mud puddle, because Jade still fucked with his balance a whole lot. 

Jade disappeared down a breezeway and came back a few minutes later with Willa, who was all but prancing with excitement at the end of her lead rope. Davey backed up when he saw them, a little nervous. Even after camp and even after growing up with his _mom_ , he still was kind of nervous on the ground with horses, especially when they were huge and spirited like Jade’s horse. The camp horses were all half broke to death, but Willa was an entirely different creature, and it made her size and power terrifyingly apparent. 

“She’s so excited to be out,” Jade laughed, rubbing his face in her neck and inhaling. “Being cooped up in that stall all week probably made her crazy...huh girl?” And then he put one hand on each side of her face, and kissed her whiskered muzzle, right between those two enormous snuffling nostrils. Davey cringed a little bit, as he did every time Jade kissed Willa, or used his bare hand to wipe her slobber off the bit, or stepped in her shit without even noticing. Jade operated as if every bodily fluid and function of that horse was completely inoffensive, and it freaked Davey out a little bit. Maybe even threatened him, but he didn’t really pay much attention to such nuance. He didn’t want to seem jealous of _horse_.

“Here, will you hold her a sec? I’m gonna go grab a dressage whip so I can chase her around the ring before I get on...so she gets all her excess energy out.” 

And before he could protest, Davey was suddenly holding Willa’s lead rope while Jade ran back to the tack room. Breathing in great, body-heaving breaths, the horse looked at Davey with huge, wet brown eyes. He looked back, aware of his heart pounding in his chest. They regarded each other, his body tense with mild fear, and her ears twitching around unsurely, like they were trying to figure out whether they liked him or not. It was as if they were temporarily acknowledging the fact they they were both vying for Jade’s attention, and were therefore adversaries in some abstract sense. 

Then Willa made up her mind, pinned her ears, and let out a piercing and high pitched whinny, backing up abruptly and pulling Davey along with her. He stumbled and slid, heart leaping up into his throat with terror while the horse shrieked and pulled him along, clearly deciding she didn’t like him at all, and if she wanted Jade for herself she could just _sit_ on Davey or something, eliminating the competition forever. 

Jade was back at Davey’s side quite suddenly, ready to save him or whatever. Davey shoved the lead rope to Jade, who took it and asked, “Jesus Dave! What did you do to her?” And then he was all up on Willa’s neck again, rubbing her taut, shining muscles and whispering comforting murmurings in her ear. 

_What did you do to her, not did you get stepped on?_ Or, _are you okay?_ or _any concern_ what so ever for Davey’s well being, which was at the mercy of an animal who weighed easily more than a ton. 

“I didn’t do _anything_ to her! She freaked out for no reason. Because she doesn’t like me,” Davey said nervously, visibly shaken up. 

“You probably had the lead too tight on her...she’s got too much energy, she felt trapped. I dunno, just be careful, okay?” Jade reprimanded without even looking at Davey, eyes instead scanning every inch of Willa’s body for evidence she’d somehow injured herself in the spook. He leaned in and kissed her again, with his eyes closed and everything. 

Davey coughed. “Sorry.” 

“Come on girl, lets go run you around,” he mumbled to Willa, bringing her to the arena where he unhooked her blue nylon halter. Davey hung back on the edge of the ring just watching, not wanting to get too close to a horse that clearly wanted to kill him. 

The second Jade slid the halter off, Willa flew off, galloping around the perimeter of the arena and kicking her hindquarters up, bucking and spinning and otherwise looking quite terrifying and murderous. Jade beamed at her, standing with his hands on his hips and watching her tear around, before he strolled up to the spot of the rail Davey was leaning on. 

“Isn’t she the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” he sighed dreamily, crossing his arms over his chest and watching the sun catch on her coat. Willa was a brown horse, but Jade insisted that she was actually a _liver chestnut_ with _dapples_. She looked like every other brown horse, to Davey. 

“Uh, I guess...” Davey mumbled, feeling like shit. Because honestly, when your boyfriend calls another creature the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, it’s not the most ego boosting news. Especially when the other creature is a _horse_.

“You _guess_?! Come on Dave. You must be blind. She’s fucking stunning,” Jade sighed. She’d slowed to a trot and was coming towards Jade with her ears pricked forward, making sure she had his attention. “Go on girlie, you’re fine,” he told her, lazily snapping the dressage whip at her heels so she spun around and bucked before galloping off in the new direction. 

“You’re not hitting her with that, are you?” Davey said, just to get a rise out of Jade. He didn’t _want_ to provoke him, just get his attention, so Davey was appalled by his own embarrassingly desperate attempts. He felt like a stupid kid getting in trouble on purpose just so the teacher would keep an eye on him. 

Of course, Jade bristled in response. “Of course not! I’d never hit my horse. What’s wrong with you today?” 

Davey shrugged. _I dunno. Your horse wants to kill me, you think she’s prettier than I am, and I’d rather watch you ride in breeches than watch stupid Willa gallop around, but whatever._

“I hate the sun,” is what Davey decided on, because it seemed like the appropriate response for the supposedly sullen and dark image he liked to perpetuate. It worked, and Jade laughed, rubbing his horse-dirty hand through Davey’s already wind-mussed devil lock. 

“You’re so tough, mister-I-Hate-Daylight. So tough you let my horse scare you.” And with that he was running off, chasing Willa for a good five minute and cracking up and otherwise looking and acting like a little kid while Davey leaned against the fence torn between wondering how someone so beautiful could exist, and wondering why it wasn’t _him_ that made Jade into a whirling, unselfconscious infant. 

Jade caught Willa and brought her back, hand laced affectionately through her neat, cropped black mane. He put her in the crossties and tacked her up, all while Davey watched half-bored. He didn’t get why horseback riding had so many fucking buckles and straps and stuff. He liked the part where you actually sat on the horse and rode around; that was fun. But the preparation, with the combs and picks and brushes and saddles and pads and bell boots and head stalls and what have you? It didn’t seem like a fair pay off for the actual riding part. 

But Jade seemed to _like it_. Davey watched him get into this zone of intense focus and precision when he groomed and tacked Willa up, his usual air of narcissism dropping off of him as he carried out complete one sided conversations with the horse. It was like he was completely transformed, _transcended_ , even, when he was doing horse-stuff. 

Davey loved to watch it, because it made him feel special to witness. Or, it had until recently. Recently he felt like if he just left, slipped out of the stable right now or even out of Jade’s _life_ , Jade wouldn’t even notice or care. He’d have Willa, still, and all of this. After all, she was what caused him to transcend. Not Davey. Davey was beginning to feel like it wasn’t merely enough to _witness_ the change, he wanted to cause it. He wanted to be the most beautiful thing Jade had ever seen, he wanted to be liver chestnut with dapples instead of brown. 

Jade interrupted him by drawling, “I’m ready to hop on. Will you close the gate behind me?” 

“Sure,” Davey said, miserable. 

He watched with a combination of awe and self-deprecation brewing in how solar plexus as Jade got to work, turning Willa around in tight circles with using nothing but his legs, head bent and back arched. He looked so elegant up there, easing her towards the rail and them off of it, backing her up and gently scissoring his reins to get her to drop her head. It was like some tacit and brilliant dance, where they communicated with each other wordlessly. Like they just _knew_ what the other was thinking, without having to make it explicit. It made Davey think about all the times he laid side by side with Jade in bed after they’d both just come, unable to figure out what Jade was thinking with his eyes shut like that, muscles in his face slack and placid. 

This was made all the worse by the times when Davey had actually asked, “What’s on your mind?” and Jade would respond, “...eh, I dunno. Horses.” 

By the time Jade was trotting serpentines with his stirrups dropped and this godawful grimace of pain on his face, Davey was a full blown jealous wreck. He was completely convinced that Jade was only keeping him around because he found him mildly amusing and a good lay, but otherwise cared infinitely more about Willa. Davey had a vivid imagination, and had already conceived of a number of scenarios in which Jade had to choose between Davey and Willa, and all of them ended quite believably in Davey’s gory demise, while Jade loped off into the sunset with his horse. 

He watched Jade do several flying lead changes across the diagonal of the arena, dismayed by the complete peace and focus that was painted across his flushed face, ears deaf to the careful, collected _thud thud_ of Willa’s hooves striking the wet earth. 

As Jade walked around and cooled Willa off, chatting with her merrily as Davey stood by the rail, wondering how many days it would be before Jade broke up with him in favor of more time in the saddle. He was very quiet as Jade dismounted and let himself out of the arena, Willa walking behind him with a sheen of sweat on her chest and neck glinting in the spring sun. 

“I feel a lot better,” Jade sighed once he clipped her into the crossties, pulling her bridle off and rubbing her brow affectionately. “I didn’t get as out of shape as I expected to, and she wasn’t as high strung as she can be after the rain...” 

Davey got the distinct feeling that Jade wasn’t really talking _to_ him, but instead was talking in an idle manner and Davey just _happened_ to be there, listening. So naturally, he didn’t respond, just stood there a few safe feet away from the cross ties while Jade unbuckled all the excessive, arbitrary horse-straps. 

Jade was already hosing Willa off when he seemed to notice Davey’s active silence. “Are you okay?” he asked, voice slightly edged with irritation. “You’re not still scared of her, are you? You’re awful quiet.” 

There were so many self-hating thoughts weaving and twisting throughout Davey’s mind at that moment that he was lucky nothing worse or more embarrassing shot out of his mouth. Regardless, he was appalled with himself when he blurted, “Do you want to break up with me?” 

Jade stared at him and went pale, hose faltering in his hand and dropping somewhere near Willa’s hooves. “...What?” 

And his voice was what made Davey pause. Because it sounded _nothing_ like the voice he used 90 percent of the time. It wasn’t even the voice he used when he was riding, or being self-critical about his imperfect crest release over a jump. It was _excruciatingly_ more vulnerable. Small and wobbling and a million times more unsure than Davey had ever heard Jade sound before. 

“I just though...it seems...” he flushed, trying to organize his thoughts while Jade crouched, shaking, to pick up and shut off the hose. “I feel like you care way more about seeing Willa than you do about seeing me. There. I said it.” Davey sighed, crossing his arms and looking to the dirty wash-stall ground. 

“Dave. You are so fucking dumb,” is what Jade grumbled, reaching down into a bucket of brushes and pulling out a rubber curry comb, with which he started furiously currying Willa with. “What the fuck have I been doing the last week?! Spending _every waking second_ driving to your house and hanging out in your bed and _blowing_ you. This is the _first day_ I’ve ridden in a _week_ , and I have a huge _show_ coming up and you’re...you’re unbelievable is what you are,” he snapped vividly, continuing to move his arm in fierce circles. 

“But that’s just it! You care more about this show, and I feel like you’ve been really distracted away from me when you _are_ with me and...” Davey stopped himself because he sounded really gross and pathetic and self absorbed. 

“I don’t know what you want me to do in order for me to prove I want to be with you,” Jade said coldly. 

And Davey didn’t know how to respond to that either, so they just stood there several yards apart, Davey staring at his sneakers and flinching every time Willa blew air from her nostrils, and Jade smoothing out the mussed hair with a hard brush with his brows knit together. It was quiet save for the surrounding horse-noises, until Jade finally threw the brush in the bucket with unnecessary force and announced, “Okay. I’m gonna tell you shit and you have to promise not to get all weird about it.”

Davey’s heart stopped. This was it. The moment he’d been waiting for, dreading. The moment when Jade told him, _I thought I liked you, but the truth is that I’m actually a zoophile and am in a loving, long term committed relationship with my horse and I was only trying sex with a person to see if I liked it but I don’t so yeah, I’m breaking up with you_. He braced himself for the horror of Jade admitting this terrible truth.

“Part of why I missed coming down here so much is that I feel like I can’t fucking _talk_ to anyone else about how fucking _scary it is_ to _love you_ as much as I do, and Willa is a horse so she listens without judgement and she’s not fucking _stupid_ like you are so she doesn’t _give a shit_ whether or not I articulate myself perfectly! There!” He said haughtily, before burying his face in Willa’s neck. “Ugh, I hate when you make me talk to you.” 

This was not really what Davey had in mind for the confession. In fact, it took him a few minutes to adjust to the image of Jade tearfully spilling his heart to Willa rather than doing illegal things with her. “You talk to your horse about loving me?” he said dumbly. 

Jade didn’t say anything, just combed Willa’s forelock.

“...Uh, why don’t you talk to _me_ about loving me? That would solve a lot of problems, I think,” Davey offered. 

Jade tossed him a withering look. “It’s much harder to talk to you than her.” 

Davey shifted his weight from foot to foot with his heart fluttering how it usually did around Jade, only without the crippling weight of self-loathing stifling its movement. “I’m sorry I get jealous, dude. It’s not like I actually want you to quit riding or anything...I love that you love it. I just...am stupid.”

“Yes. You are incredibly stupid. Now will you come here and kiss me so I can stop feeling all vulnerable and shit?” Jade pleaded, without leaving Willa’s side. 

Davey started to move, then stopped himself as his eyes darted nervously towards the cross-tied horse. Jade rolled his eyes. “Oh come on! She doesn’t _bite_.” 

Shuffling up beside her in spite of himself, Davey got close though to throw his arms around Jade’s neck and kiss him desperately, still not entirely recovered from convincing himself they were breaking up. Jade tasted salty from his own sweat, dirty hands threading themselves through Davey’s clean hair. They kissed for a few moments, with little breath and space between them. Jade put his hand flat on Davey’s chest and pushed him away, grinning. “You should really trust me more.” 

Davey flushed, shrugging. “Maybe.” Then Willa stamped her left front foot, making Davey leap away, terrified. 

“There’s an apple in my backpack,” Jade drawled. “Bring it over here and feed it to her. You guys need a serious peace offering in truce...you know, I think she just might be a little jealous of you, too.”


End file.
